Marcos Ambrose, 2012 NSCS Capital City 400 Post-Race Recap

[media-credit name=”rir.com” align=”alignright” width=”198″][/media-credit]Marcos Ambrose – No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion

Marcos Ambrose started the 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Richmond International Raceway from the 14th position. Ambrose finished the Capital City 400 as follows:

22nd—Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion

Sunday marked Ambrose’s 128^th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start.

Kyle Busch claimed the victory Saturday night in a race that saw the caution flag wave five times for a total of 31 laps. Carl Edwards finished 10th and was the highest finishing Ford.

Ambrose suffered from back spasms prior to the race, resulting in Trevor Bayne standing by in the team’s pit stall to relieve Ambrose if needed. Bayne was never called upon, as Ambrose never mentioned his condition after he got in the Stanley Ford and began racing.

The team worked with a “loose” handling car early in the race event, but Ambrose still broke into the top-10 by Lap 60.

Fighting the handling of the car, Ambrose was unable to hold his top-10 position, but never fell out of the top-20 until Lap 120. Crew Chief Todd Parrott made a variety of changes during the caution periods and kept Ambrose as close to the leaders as possible.

The Stanley team fell below the top-25 during the middle stages of the race, but the changes and strategy made the car better for Ambrose.

Ambrose gained nine positions in the second half of the race to finish 22^nd only one lap down.

Unofficially, Ambrose sits in 22^nd place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings heading into Talladega next weekend.

Ambrose’s Thoughts After the Race: “That was a tough race for me, but I’ve got to thank the Stanley team for sticking behind me. We qualified well on Friday and had a pretty good car early. We fell off a bit, but did agood job of making the car better and gaining spots at the end. I’m going to focus on returning to completestrength for Talladega and have a better time there.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to the Talladega Superspeedway for the Aaron’s 499, May 6, at 12:00 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on FOX and MRN Radio.